The internet revolution in equity markets

ItÆs not about online trading or ECNs, says James Shapiro, senior managing director at NYSE.

Fundamentally exchanges are just networks, says the New York Stock Exchanges NYSE main representative in Asia. And the real long-term impact of the internet on the business of stock trading comes from the expansion of those networks worldwide.

This, says Shapiro, has put globalization pressures on exchanges and regulators that goes beyond the rise of online retail brokers and even the electronic communication networks ECN that have captured a good deal of the volume in US markets.